This is a 12" baby radish pod that I picked to eat with dinner:
Comical, but I am growing more "air" plants outside of my AeroGarden planters than in them. One of the most fascinating ones is Rauphonus cordatus or Red Rattail Radish, which I have in dirt. But this wonder plant, also known as aerial radish, is not a root vegetable. The pods are edible.
Due to availability issues I got a rather late start on these last summer, but they are amazing, and still bearing edible pods after surviving the winter in my carport. Apparently, they are supposed to be staked, but I let mine hang down over the edge of an elevated planter.
This is one of my favorite vegetables, because it is easy to grow from seed, interesting, and attractive in its own way, with nutritionally dense leaves and pods.
I like them raw when they are between stylus and pencil thin and long, or cooked when they are short and fat. I am getting both kinds on each of my 3 plants. This summer I will plant a lot more and also buy seeds for the Munchen Bier (Raphanus sativus), which should taste good with my kombucha. Munchen Bier is interesting because it produces edible fruit at both ends. I don't know if the leaves are as delicious as the cordatus, not having researched this, but suspect that the tubers, like Daikon Radish, are also rich in inulin.
I saved a few pods for seeds, and opened one of them too early, but after waiting a few more months (!) I tried again and was rewarded with these nice little sprouts which I will plant today.
Reasons I like to sprout this sort of seed in vials of water include:
1) It is a photo op and I like to watch the roots grow.
2). It gives me a window of time within which I can decide how and where to plant them (dirt, potting soil, hydro, some of each?)
3) They stay ahead of the fungus gnats.